Please chime in if you've been using Win8. I think this would be useful for all users that are thinking about the upgrade. Please try to be as impartial as possible - NO fanboys, or anti-MS people. Separate in 2 please:

1. How do you find the experience of Win8 by itself. Do you have to do a lot of customizing to get to something you can live with? etc...

2. How do you like it with Sonar? Any problems? Any hacks that need to be done? etc..

Feel free to add anything else that you feel might be interesting.

Thanks.

Articles here

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22windows+8%22+sonar&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-Address&ie=&oe=&redir_esc=&ei=RHB8UJdNpqvRBdHKgOAD

CakeAlexS


Articles here

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22windows+8%22+sonar&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-Address&ie=&oe=&redir_esc=&ei=RHB8UJdNpqvRBdHKgOAD

LOL - thanks CakeAlexS - but I wanted an IMPARTIAL reviews... Just everyday users etc... I saw the Cake article, but it's not what I'm looking for. It's very useful in the info it presents, but often it lacks that 'real world' testing that saw X1 advance from a to d versions. Numbers are great, but we're doing art, not math, so I'd also need to know the feel of it and how it handles. For example a lot of people fee uncomfortable with the new layout. Of course those are just regular users, hence my post on the Sonar forum to get prespectives from Sonar users, not just regular ones.

unless you have a time machine, time will tell

1) because sp1 normally fixes a lot in windows.. (any longterm win users who moans about it before then should learn by now)

2) the sonar for win 8 isn't available yet

that will give you the TRUE answer

we (audio / video folk)  aren't a high priority for MS , where as tablet users are *shrugs*



and remember what "fun" we have with certain companies and their drivers..

e.g. me with m-audio ozone drivers for 64 bit that shouldn't have even got thru beta they were so bad!!

Ah impartial... OK

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/27/bill-gates-windows-8-microsoft_n_1919877.html

I have a celeron based toshiba laptop that was just hangin around.
I put windows 8 consumer preview on it just to do some testing.

It runs on that celeron like a raped ape.
A celeron has never gone this fast.

I put Sonar and my control surface code for to test and that works too.

While i detest the metro (or whatever) interface, dumping to the desktop is like windows 7 on nitromethane. They have really slimmed this version down just when software bloat seemed irreversible.

It has no start button but I have an after market start button and menu that makes it feel like 7. But quicker.

personally i will wait for win8 to be available before i ask for anyones opinion :) .. there just wont be enough valid data points until then (reviewing a preview isnt valid imo)

      I've been running SONAR X2 under Windows 8 since the final code was released several weeks ago. From a stability standpoint, Windows 8 runs just as well, if not better than Windows 7. One big caveat is to make sure that the drivers for your hardware are Windows 8 compatible. After upgrading, I discovered that my V-Studio 700 console/audio interface would not work with Windows 8 at all. Supposedly, Roland is working on Windows 8 drivers though. For the past few weeks, I've been limping along using a backup audio interface. 

    SONAR X2 seems to run fine and is just as stable as X1 was for me. 


As far as using the Windows 8 interface, it took a little while to get used to it. However, once you do, you do start to realize how inefficient the old way was.


A few tips:

• To launch programs instead of finding/clicking an icon, just hit the Windows key and start typing the name of the program.
• Right-clicking in the lower left corner will give you a menu to many of the most used Windows features
• To close Metro apps, move the cursor to the top of the screen until it turns to a hand, click & drag the program to the bottom to 'throw it away'
• For most people, it's pretty easy to forget that they are running Windows 8 after a few days. 
• The 'missing' Start menu was annoying at first, but for me all it did was highlight how inefficient it actually was at what it did.

-e.B

my mistake

Hi firefly9000

In short:-

XP SP2 X32 = very good
Vista SP0 X64 = bad
Vista SP1 X64 = bad
Vista SP2 X64 = great
Windows 7 SP0 X64 = great
Windows 7 SP1 X64 = great

Based on my personal testing with the Consumer Preview and testing with X1d and S1V2, CW's testing and reported results, and other users experieicne across a myriad of Audio Forums, Windows 8 X64 is without doubt the best DAW audio O/S so far.
 
Even compared to the latest MAC o/s  Win 8 X64 is light-years ahead in terms of  very-high-CPU-load-ultra-low-latency  DAW work.

There is of course a but ....

All of the above is correct provided you have [ at least ]  and audio card and video card with up-to-date Windows 7 X64 drivers or Windows 8 X64 drivers.

The days of the operating system being any sort of blocker or hinderance or "limiter" to what can be done in-the-box are long gone.

Tim